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A-G backs away from changes to anti discrimination legislation

The Attorney General, Nicola Roxon, is backing away from her proposed changes to the anti discrimination laws which were supposed to make the current laws simpler and fairer. When the government suggested it was going to make changes there was an outcry from media groups, judicial figures and MP's. A senate committee considering the draft bill received nearly 600 submissions.

Transcript

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TONY EASTLEY: Is it a campaign or isn't it? With an election on September the 14th, the two major parties probably won't be able to help themselves, and electioneering of one sort or another will begin its slow creep.

Seven and a half months is a long time and it may be that the public will turn off if the parties jump in too soon.

While the Prime Minister's surprise election announcement was partly designed to force the Coalition to reveal more detail about its policies, Labor too is under pressure.

Our chief political correspondent, Sabra Lane joins us now.

Sabra, good morning. You've spoken to a lot of people about the PM's decision. Is there a consensus about whether it was a good decision or not?

SABRA LANE: No, Tony, there is no consensus. While some do welcome it, saying that it will quash months of needless speculation about a date, it certainly does provide certainty and they hope more attention on policy but some MPs are very, very critical.

Some quotes Tony can't be repeated on air but some of the more charitable comments are "gob-smacking", "insane" and "puzzling" and those who are puzzled say that this decision effectively elevates the Opposition Leader for seven months - giving Tony Abbott a higher status in the community and at media events and opportunities for that amount of time rather than six weeks.

TONY EASTLEY: Those quotes, were they from Labor MPs?

SABRA LANE: Yes, they certainly were.

TONY EASTLEY: Are we really going to get 227 days of campaigning,? Surely not.

SABRA LANE: Well, the Prime Minister says that certainly isn't her intention, that she's getting on with the business of governing but she's done two commercial TV media opportunities this morning. She's rubbished this idea that is in some papers this morning that she's called on the date to head off a Kevin Rudd challenge as flibbertigibbet politics but you know, it's hard to see it not as a campaign.

Everything that they do and say now, all the policies, will be seen through the prism of that September 14 date. We also know that Mr Abbott's scheduled to do media appearances this morning too. Unfortunately both declined invitations to appear on this program this morning.

TONY EASTLEY: Can the Parliament, Sabra, be business as usual then?

SABRA LANE: Look, the Government will try and push on with it and be business as usual but certainly there is one interesting change that Parliament will confront early in the New Year. The Attorney General, Nicola Roxon, is backing away from proposed changes to the anti-discrimination laws which were supposed to make the current laws simpler and fairer.

The Government put forward these ideas last year and they said that the aim was to make the laws much simpler but instead it caused an outcry from media groups, judicial figures and MPs. A Senate committee had been established to consider this draft bill and already it had considered 600 submissions.

Nicola Roxon, the Attorney General argues the legislation was only just a draft. I spoke to her a short time ago.

NICOLA ROXON: What we're doing is exactly what we said we would. We released an exposure draft of legislation and the reason we did that is because we acknowledged the complexity of drafting this new bill.

We chose one form of definition that many people in this Senate inquiry have objected to so I've asked my department to look at other options, which they'll be presenting to the Senate committee next week and that includes making clear what were their intentions from the beginning, that there are different ways to consolidate this law and we certainly are not trying to encroach on existing protections for freedom of speech.

SABRA LANE: But why now, why today? There was a chorus of opposition late last year.

NICOLA ROXON: Well, there was. The purposes I say, sometimes this is an odd thing in politics. If you don't consult enough you can be criticised and if you do, people want to run a campaign as if this is already a law.

The reason this is an exposure draft, the reason it wasn't introduced into the Parliament or been changed in debate, is because we accepted that there are a range of complex provisions and this is one that's got a lot of attention through the Senate inquiry process.

That's the Senate inquiry doing its proper work and our department will then put the next options next week when it presents to the committee so that people can look at what was the clear intention of the Government, they can give advice about what the Senate believes is a better option.

It seems to me clear that there are better options than the one that's been proposed and we'll take it forward from there.

SABRA LANE: How much were you swayed by those nearly 600 submissions and were you at all convinced by people like the former judge and ABC chairman, Jim Spigelman, and former judge Ian Callinan?

NICOLA ROXON: We took them very seriously and others have also made this point which we think do need, does need to be addressed, but I do need to be quite open with you and your listeners - there are some submissions that would like us to roll back lots of existing protections from discrimination and we don't intend to do that.

Unfortunately there are people in the world who don't believe that there should be discrimination laws at all and we believe there should be but we've been up-front that the purpose of this project is to consolidate existing laws and we were concerned that Mr Spigelman's comments and others indicated that the drafting might have gone beyond that.

So I believe that the release of the exposure draft has done its work. This is actually a proper way for a parliamentary process to be undertaken.

SABRA LANE: How confident are you then that the new words of this section will satisfy the concerns of media organisations and why were the original words there in the first place? Was it simply an oversight?

NICOLA ROXON: The original words were there in the first place because that's an attempt of the drafters to consolidate existing laws and take account of decisions that the courts have made...

SABRA LANE: But they were pretty clumsy. The words were pretty clumsy.

NICOLA ROXON: Well, they, I think we just need to accept that it's a difficult job when you're putting five different pieces of legislation into one. I don't think that this attempt was successful obviously the Senate inquiry process and the release of the exposure draft has fleshed that out and has made sure that other options can be carefully considered before any legislation is introduced into the Parliament.

SABRA LANE: To the setting of the election date, some within your party are pretty cranky with the Prime Minister over yesterday's announcement saying it's insane and it gave away the element of surprise and will only mean that all debate in policies now will be seen through the prism of a September 14 poll.

NICOLA ROXON: Well, I think it's important for people to know the dates. The Prime Minister has done something that is without political precedent and I think that's in her nature to be strong and bold and determined to do things in the best interests of the country.

And she no doubt, as many people do, feel that there has been a sort of one-sided campaign almost for this whole period of government where we have been getting on with delivering government as we should and putting forward policies telling the community what it is that we propose for the future and the Opposition have not done that.

We've seen no serious engagement from them on policy issues at all. I think they'll have no option now but to engage properly with that process and the community will be able to make a choice on September the 14th as to which party will lead Australia in the right direction for the future.

SABRA LANE: News Limited papers this morning are suggesting that the date was announced in order to ward off a Rudd challenge. Is there any substance to that?